Posts by Henk Looijesteijn
5 posts
A while ago I wrote an article about the prominent Portuguese-Jewish Amsterdam merchant Antonio Lopes Suasso (1614-1685). The magazine which commissioned the article liked it so much they had it translated. For those who are interested: https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/antonio-lopes-suasso-migrant-expat-and-knowledge-worker-in-a-global-city/
In Dutch, sorry about that, but it is worth sharing the important Sephardic-Jewish cemetery of Curaçao, once a vibrant heart community of the Western Sephardim, is gravely under threat from the destructive pollution caused by the industrial relic next to it.
The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, the Judaica section of Amsterdam University Library, is looking to acquire a copy of Bevis Marks Records VI, which is not in any other library in the Netherlands. Unfortunately it seems the publisher ran out of copies. Would anyone here have a spare copy or have knowledge where one can be got?
A question, for which I hope this group may supply me with an answer. In my research into the Lopes family of Braganza, Bordeaux and then Amsterdam/The Hague and London I came across one line with a peculiar surname, Berachel or Berahel. It is an exceedingly rare surname, all Berachels I could find in the records of the Amsterdam and London Sephardic congregations are related. As you may know, tha...
Inspired by Ton I went to visit the - now closed - exhibition on Jewish The Hague, and aside from the paintings it struck me - again - how the Lopes Suasso family was so omnipresent in The Hague. They played a major role in founding, building and furnishing the synagogue of the Honen Dal congregation, which was completed in 1726. Among others they donated the hechal - which is still in place - and...